Tu BiShvat

Tu BiShvat, minor Jewish festival considered to be the new year of trees. It occurs on the 15th of Shevaṭ (falling in late January or early February) after most of the annual rain in Israel has fallen, and it marks the date after which the fruit of a tree is deemed to belong to a new year for the sake of tithing. Jews have interpreted and practiced the holiday in different ways in multiple historical times and places. In modern Israel it is observed in service of the Zionist project of agricultural development, of “making the desert bloom.” Although similar in some ways to the secular Arbor Day, Tu BiShvat’s meaning is intricately connected to Jewish religion and identity.

History

The textual basis for Tu BiShvat in the Hebrew Bible has been found in Leviticus 19:23–25. In that passage God instructs Moses to inform the Israelites—who are still wandering in the desert after the Exodus—that when they reach Israel, the fruit of the trees will be unholy for three years, all the fruit should be offered to God in the fourth year, and then the fruit can be eaten only after the fifth year. Annual tithing of portions of tree fruit, and all of a tree’s fruit in its fourth year, was a regular ritual practice in ancient Judaism.

During the writing of the Talmud (which reached its final form by 300 ce), rabbis determined that they needed to establish a birthday for the trees to regularize the tithing schedule. They established the birthday of all trees as the 15th of the month of Shevaṭ, since it typically occurs after most of the annual rainfall in Israel, and the fertile soil at that moment is in an opportune condition to plant tree seeds. Tu BiShvat became one of four “new years” in the Jewish religious calendar, along with the primary calendrical new year (Rosh Hashana on the first of Tishri), the new year for animals and tithing of animals (the first of Elul), and the new year for enumerating kings’ reigns and the holiday cycle (the first of Nisan).

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After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 ce and the Jews’ subsequent exile and dispersion from Israel, members of the Jewish Diaspora gave the holiday new meanings. It primarily became a festival for eating agricultural products from the land of Israel, thus maintaining a connection to the holy land through food. In some regions the ritually significant foods are enumerated as the seven mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:8 as crops found in Israel: wheat, barley, vines (grapes), figs, pomegranates, olives, and honey (made from dates).

In the mystical Jewish tradition of Lurianic Kabbalah that developed in the 16th century in Europe, these seven fruits were mapped onto seven of the divine attributes, or sefirot, that each human possesses and which are said to be contained in the fruits. For example, in this mystical model, wheat corresponds to chesed, or the quality of kindness. In time other plant products with other meanings were added to this list of significant foods, including carob, nuts, and etrog. The mystical concept of the tree of life (ʿetz ḥayim) is also significant in Lurianic Kabbala and was incorporated into the meaning of the holiday. In the Kabbalist iteration of Tu BiShvat, eating the fruits of the trees is thought to symbolically and spiritually strengthen the “tree of life” and to atone for Adam’s sin of eating the fruit of the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden.

In modern Israel Tu BiShvat has become popular as a holiday that symbolizes reclaiming the land from the desert for agriculture. Under the influence of Zionism, as well as the agricultural efforts among many early Jewish settlers who made aliyah (immigrated to Israel), the holiday’s focus on eating the fruits of trees shifted to the planting of trees. Some sources suggest that an immigrant from Poland, Ze’ev Yavetz, who had settled in Zichron Ya’akov near Haifa in the late 1880s, began the tradition of planting trees on Tu BiShvat in 1890. Other accounts suggest the first Tu BiShvat tree planting in Israel started in 1884 in the northeastern Yesud ha-Maʿala settlement. The practice was later adopted by the Israeli teacher’s union and further supported by the nonprofit Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael).

Some critics claim that efforts by the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) to plant trees for Tu BiShvat and throughout the year are neither neutral nor environmentally friendly but are rather political and potentially harmful to the environment. They claim that the JNF’s narrative of “making the desert bloom” ignores the Palestinians who cultivated the land prior to modern Jewish immigration. Critics further note that many trees have been planted on the sites of former Palestinian villages—many of which were destroyed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war (also called al-nakbah, “the catastrophe,” by Palestinians)—or on land adjacent to Jewish settlements, thus effectively claiming the land for Jews as part of the KKL-JNF’s nation-building program. Other detractors of tree-planting efforts in Israel contend that the pine trees most often planted are invasive and flammable, thus reducing biodiversity and threatening wildfires.

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Observances

Tu BiShvat is considered a minor holiday for which there is little in the way of essential liturgical or community participation, although certain penitential prayers are omitted from the liturgy and fasting is not allowed. Despite its minor status relative to other Jewish holidays, it has become a festive fruit-filled affair observed in different ways by Jews across the world. Among Ashkenazi Jews, 15 different kinds of fruits, following the ideas of Kabbalist Isaac Luria, are eaten and often accompanied by the recital of psalms. Dried fruits and nuts became prominent parts of the day’s observance. Ashkenazi followers of Kabbala, in particular, have developed a seder meal, similar to the seder at Passover, for Tu BiShvat. In the Kabbalist interpretation, eating particular fruits awakens in the eater the specific divine attributes contained in the fruits. The Kabbalist Tu BiShvat seder meal was also imagined as a way to ascend the tree of life from the physical to the spiritual realm.

Among Sephardi Jews, Tu BiShvat is a significant “feast of fruits” festival accompanied by songs called coplas. Variations abound in Mizrahi spreads of plant-produced foods eaten on the holiday; for example, Kurdish Jews include 30 fruits, Bene Israel Jews in India list 50, and Moroccan Jews serve 100. The inclusion among some Jews of the etrog (a citron) connects the holiday with Sukkot, another Jewish agricultural holiday that takes place in autumn. Jews observing the holiday might save an etrog from the previous Sukkot to consume in jam form on Tu BiShvat or pray on this holiday for a good etrog for the upcoming Sukkot.

The Bene Israel Jews of India celebrate Tu BiShvat with a festive meal called malida, which includes a dish by the same name that consists of flattened rice (poha) mixed with nuts, coconut, and fruits (including local Indian fruits). The Bene Israel recount a legend in which their ancestors’ ship from ancient Israel wrecked off the Konkan coast of western India on Tu BiShvat. The community’s ancestors—seven men and seven women—then prayed to the prophet Elijah, who rescued them. For the Bene Israel community, Tu BiShvat thus doubles as a holiday for Elijah.

In modern Israel’s celebration of Tu BiShvat, schoolchildren participate in ceremonies of planting trees and singing songs. Within the Jewish Diaspora community in the 20th and 21st centuries, many Jews have adopted Tu BiShvat as a Jewish Arbor Day, making it an occasion to plant trees in their own communities or to give donations to plant trees in Israel. Some progressive Jewish groups, particularly those that identify as humanistic or secular, have expanded the holiday beyond trees into a day of general environmental awareness and activities.